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Carols with Brass
Saturday, November 28, 2009, 7:30 pm
George St. United Church
Featuring:
CANADIAN STAFF BAND OF THE SALVATION
ARMY
LEN BALLANTINE, composer
Ian Sadler, organist
Brass and timpani and organ and 100 voices raised in song! What
better way to welcome the festive season? The premiere brass ensemble
of the Canadian Salvation Army joins the Singers for sing-along
favourites and more. Featuring a newly commissioned composition
by Len Ballantine.
CANADIAN STAFF BAND OF THE SALVATION ARMY
Now in its 40th year, the Canadian Staff Band continues to have
an effective musical and spiritual ministry. Since its re-formation
in 1969, it has played and ministered at various locations and functions,
including open-air meetings, jails, hospitals, hostels, government
buildings, churches, auditoriums, theatres, schools, concert halls,
many large and small corporations, music clinics, a royal palace,
and even a race track. It continues to be acknowledged as one of
the most renowned bands in the Salvation Army world.
In April 2008, John Lam was appointed as the fifth bandmaster of
the Canadian Staff Band. A professional musician and music educator,
John currently heads the music department at Westminster Secondary
School in London, Ontario, where he is also the bandmaster at London
Citadel.
LEN BALLANTINE
Major Len Ballantine is well known for his choral and brass compositions
in The Salvation Army. His leadership of the International Staff
Songsters from 1992–1998 brought a decidedly contemporary
note to mainstream vocal ensemble work within our culture. Len is
comfortable with a wide range of musical expressions from the classics
to pop, and he welcomes modern material as a helpful necessity in
the fashioning of worship.
| IAN SADLER
Ian Sadler is a Canadian concert organist and choral director.
Since taking first Prize in the USA's International Organ Playing
Competition in Syracuse in 1986, Ian has devoted himself to the
concert platform with organ recitals in Britain (Westminster Abbey,
King's College Chapel, Cambridge), France (Notre Dame Cathedral,
Paris), USA, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Austria, Germany, the Czech
Republic, Italy, Hungary, and Denmark. In Canada, he has performed
in inaugural series on new concert hall organs, including in Toronto's
Roy Thomson Hall, Calgary's Jack Singer Hall, and the Winspeare
Centre in Edmonton. As a regular performer in the North American
International Liszt Festival, Ian has performed the complete organ
works of Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Reubke. In 1999, he represented
Canada as the first Canadian member of the International Jury for
the Liszt Organ Playing Competition in Budapest, Hungary.
Ian has performed concertos with The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony,
The Hamilton Philharmonic, and The Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra
and with the Timmins and North Bay Symphony Orchestras. Ian's discography
is extensive with a series of CD's on major organs in Toronto (Thomson
Hall, Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, and St. James' Cathedral),
a CD from Stratford of organ recital favourites entitled 'The Sadler
Selection' and a CD devoted to the music of Mozart for the 250th
Anniversary Celebrations. In 1999, Ian won a Juno Award. He has
further recorded many programmes for the CBC and was featured last
year on BBC's Radio 2 performing the organ music of Vaughan Williams.
Ian's CD “Romantic Music for Organ Vol. I,” which was
recorded at St. James' Cathedral in Toronto, was released in February
2008. In March, he recorded a further CD on the fine historic Casavant
organ of St. John's Cathedral, Newfoundland.
Plans for 2009–2010 include 2 further solo CDs --- one dedicated
to the music of Mendelssohn for his 200th anniversary --- a recital
tour in Australia and New Zealand, and further concerts in Denmark
and Sweden and in the USA in New York, San Francisco, and Hawaii.
Born in England, Ian began his musical training as a boy chorister
for five years at St. Paul's Cathedral, London. He attended The
King's School, Canterbury from where he won the Organ Scholarship
to Bristol University. During postgraduate study at London University,
Ian was Organ Scholar at St. Paul's Cathedral for two years. Before
moving to Canada, his final engagement in the UK was to play the
organ in the movie Chariots of Fire. In 1980, Ian moved to Canada
following his appointment as Director of Music at Toronto's Grace
Church on-the-Hill and Choral Director at Upper Canada College.
Ian is Artistic Director of the Stratford Concert Choir, founder
and conductor of the Stratford Children's Concert Choir, and Director
of the Cathedral Singers of Ontario.
For his dedication to promoting the organ and Canadian music, both
at home and abroad, The Royal Canadian College of Organists honoured
Ian in 2007 with their highest award, “Fellow of The Royal
Canadian College of Organists.”
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